The president has personally apologises to the Swiss couple

The fake ceremony happened at one of the archipelago’s luxury hotel resorts earlier this month.

The Maldives government says the couple are distressed by what has happened and wish to remain anonymous.

President Nasheed’s office said he telephoned the couple to say that the whole of the Maldives was deeply sorry for what happened in this fake ceremony, in which the unsuspecting couple were subjected to a torrent of strong verbal abuse in the local language which they did not understand.

Tourism industry

The statement said the President had invited the couple to return to the Maldives as his personal guests.

You know we receive about 800,000 tourists each year; majority of them are actually repeat visitors because they have had a good time in the Maldives Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed

It said that they desired anonymity and sought the president’s help in trying to contain the spread of video or photographs of the incident, as the publication of these had already caused them “considerable distress and embarrassment”.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says the hotel employee who led the ceremony, Hussein Didi, is now under arrest with one of his colleagues.

A local website, Haveeru Online, said they were facing charges including insulting Islam and “disesteeming” a tourist couple.

Maldives Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Shaheed told BBC Sandeshaya that action of few people could halt the whole tourism industry.

"You know we receive about 800,000 tourists each year; majority of them are actually repeat visitors because they have had a good time in the Maldives," he said.

The fake ceremony mainly consisted of insults although Mr Didi also appeared to mock the level of hotel workers’ salaries.

The minister added that everybody in the Maldives are "disgusted" by the behaviour of the hotel employees.

Luxury tourism is a mainstay of the Maldivian economy and the anxious government says it is preparing strict new guidelines for these expensive ceremonies for tourists.